And speaking of experiments...

I mentioned these briefly in my post the other day but I'm working on some experiments.  I got a few requests for recipes on fermenting zucchini, so since I have an abundance of it I've got four different fermented preparations in the works.  First of all, I have two different relishes- one shredded with dried lemon peel and dill, and one diced with turmeric and dill.

Lacto-fermented zucchini slices, shredded zucchini relish, and diced zucchini relish.

I also sliced up some zucchini and used them to prepare a very basic ferment, using only a dill seed head, the salted brine, and some starter (some brine from my previous batch of sour pickles).  For this I was thinking "what would my kids like?"  They love pickles, but there aren't any other ferments I can get them to eat regularly.

And lastly (and most simply), I picked some tiny baby squash, mostly yellow summer squash, sliced off the blossom end, and threw them into the batch of sour cucumber pickles I had started the day before.

I won't have my first "results" for at least a week, but I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Here are the things I considered when working with zucchini:

• Zucchini contains more water than cucumbers, so use more salt/less water.  Also, for all the preps except the last I tossed the cut/shredded zucchini with salt and let it sit for an hour or so to pull out the water before adding more to make the brine- this way you have a better idea as to how much less water to use (don't discard the water the zucchini puts off- use it in the brine!).  I wouldn't suggest much kneading or squishing like what you would do to make sour beets or sauerkraut, as zucchini isn't a tough as cabbage or beets.
•  Summer squash and zucchini are tender plants- do not abuse them!  This is the reason that squash is not often heat canned, at least not in applications where retaining shape or texture would be important.
• I assume that since it's a more tender vegetable, fermenting times will be shorter.
• While cucumber has its own distinct flavor, zucchini is more of a blank slate.  I would imagine I could add any of a myriad of flavor combinations, but I decided simple is best for my first go.

So here's hoping I'm left with more than a pile of mush in a week or so!